‘Dragging Rocks Through Hurricanes’ - Ceiti
Last summer we wrote about a duo called Artax and their ‘Rise’ EP. Their powerful throwback sound to the 1980’s is characterised by producer Callum Warrender’s guitar, composition and programming skills, but on top of that is the voice and piano playing of Katie Wills. Running concurrently with her work in Artax is her own music under the name Ceiti – let’s take a look at this side of Katie’s career, including her latest single ‘Islands’.
Image Credit: JAG Media
Glasgow based Ceiti is a naturally collaborative artist. You’d be wrong if you thought her music would be a simple piano and vocal affair, the songs Ceiti has been working on sound more like a band than any singer/songwriter label attributed to her. Not only has she worked with Callum in Artax, Ceiti has also contributed a track to Fiona Liddell’s project ‘Cover To Cover’. The idea behind this is to showcase Scottish women in music where streaming platform Spotify had largely failed to do so, with all the artists involved covering each other’s songs – thirteen in total.
In terms of her own music, Ceiti received a grant from the Young Scot’s Nurturing Talent, Time To Shine fund, which allowed her to record her upcoming debut EP. The first single entitled ‘Blue Roses’ was released last summer.
Beginning with gentle piano, the mood is set with minimal atmospheric sounds, but it’s the melody of the vocal that pulls the listener in with the opening verse: ‘Let's take a walk in the garden before the rain starts to fall and drenches the branches in melancholy, and leaves me feeling so small.’ Ceiti’s lyrics often reflect mental health struggles, with Blue Roses being added to the Scottish charity Health In Mind’s album ‘Music For Mental Health’.
Straight away, Blue Roses is a fine example of how the traditional singer/songwriter label can’t be applied to Ceiti. It’s full of acoustic drums, thumping bass and lead guitar that skates circles around the fretboard. Ceiti’s voice is full of power and more importantly, passion. The prime example is the section of Blue Roses where the band drops out, leaving Ceiti to sing: ‘In a state of calm but feeling so restless, surrounded by beauty but living in hell. And I know, that I'm walking in the light, but I'm afraid, of all the shadows that haunt every step that I take.’ Combined with Ceiti’s crushing vocal ability, it’s her writing from the heart that makes this music so special.
Ceiti’s vibrant music video for Blue Roses is produced by Kieran Hunter Films and features a full band performance interspersed with solo shots of Ceiti exploring the location. Could this video have been shot on a more beautiful day?
Ceiti’s next single was conceived as a collaborative work with charity in mind. ‘Flower Child’ brings several musicians together, including Michael Hamilton on guitars, whose inspiring soundscapes we’ve written about before. As well as being released as a standalone single in support of WWF UK and the Scottish Association for Mental Health, the latter was also supported in a compilation from Classy Lassy called ‘Classy Lassy & Friends: Volume 1’.
As suggested by the association with WWF, the lyricism in Flower Child is linked to the environment. Produced by Callum Warrender, this track has more natural elements than either Blue Roses or the pair’s work in Artax. This is exemplified not only by the core band featuring Johnny Keel on bass and Gary McEwan on drums, but by mandolin played by Ryan McCready, fiddle from Karys Watt and flute by Kerry Lynch. All these elements are added without taking away Ceiti’s core sound, though to differentiate from her other solo work, Flower Child is credited to ‘Ceiti and Friends’.
I was knocked off my feet from the first time I heard ‘Islands’. The piano leans more towards a less dynamic keyboard sound, but a piano with a fuller tone would go to waste under the weight of Callum Warrender’s production. The sound is similar to Blue Roses, with a healthy helping of reverb both on Ceiti’s vocals and the drum kit. In addition to that, there are more keyboard layers than before, mimicking a larger string sound which builds over the course of the track’s five-minute journey. Islands is urgent, the perfect example of Ceiti’s artistic expression.
With Ceiti’s main instrument being piano, it isn’t hard to see how this translates to the bigger production presented here. A bare version of the track is also available as the first video on Ceiti’s YouTube channel, her passionate delivery isn’t scrimped on there either. The sound effects of rolling waves is a thoughtful inclusion, and with Islands being on the epic scale, could this be the song that closes Ceiti’s debut EP? Or is there something bigger in store?
1. Your new single 'Islands' is the range of epic we've come to expect from you! What inspired the lyric on this song?
Ahh thank you, so kind of you to say haha! So this is another song about my battles with mental health, predominantly OCD. Islands is a song inspired by the front cover of a Ludovico Einaudi piano book which then morphed into a song about mental health, going into detail about my everyday battle with OCD and how that has darkened my life for a while now. Islands is a song about battling your inner demons and wanting to be safe from it all, wanting to escape from your mind and go somewhere far from where the hurt, pain and darkness is.
2. This track was produced by your bandmate in Artax, Callum Warrender. What was it like to record this? Was the chemistry different than for an Artax song?
Yes, it was indeed and he's done a grand job if I say so myself! Also a huge shout out to Jamie, Jack and John for writing and recording amazing guitar and bass parts for Islands too, it wouldn't be what it is without their insane skills and talents! It was kind of a strange one for Islands. I'd decided to go ahead with Callum producing my EP instead of staying with the last producers for Blue Roses, more so for creative/stylistic choices in production than anything else. At the time I'd switched over, Callum was moving house and perhaps some wires were crossed or there was some miscommunication but I'd thought he was maybe too busy or preoccupied with moving house so I was put in touch with a producer based down south and we worked together for a bit via Zoom. I realised, again, that stylistically Callum was the right choice for production on my EP, as I already know what he can do with Artax stuff. Not discrediting the producer I had switched to at all, as he's great in what he does, I think I just realised that I already know Callum's style, and what he does with a song production wise. So I went back to Callum, again haha. There was a bit of back and forth for a while, him working on it, sending over new mixes, me and the other boys discussing if there was anything that could be added or altered etc, just to get the best sound for Islands. And I think with his amazing wizardry of talents and paying attention to detail has moulded Islands into what it is now. Obviously from working with Callum in Artax, I know how he works and what he can do to bring a song to life, so that chemistry was already there. It's definitely different when it's your own music but he still puts his spin on it, which is what I ultimately wanted.
3. 'Blue Roses' was released last summer, where did the title of that track come from?
So, I started writing Blue Roses when I was teaching with Riverside Music College. I was sitting in the room, in between a lesson ending and another beginning or maybe it was lunch or something, but I had some time to practise. I've always been a huge fan of Ludovico Einaudi and started playing around with a broken chord/arpeggio type thing on piano. It then developed into Blue Roses. The name, off the top of my head, I'm not overly sure where it came from exactly. But I deliberately used Blue Roses to convey symbolism, with the roses being blue as a symbol of mental health i.e. sadness, depression etc. Being surrounded metaphorically by all these "blue roses" which is really just another way of saying, you're surrounded by sadness/depression etc in your mind, your life is engulfed in it. You don't know what to do with it, you're terrified of being alone with it, feeling lost and isolated and not knowing where to go or who to turn to. But within that symbolism is an underlying tone of hope and that there is beauty that lives within that darkness, you've just got to reach out and look for it.
4. The video for 'Blue Roses' is so vibrant, what was it like shooting on that day? Who are the members of your band?
Ahh thank you, Kieran (who filmed it) and that day in particular are to thank for making it such a vibrant video to be honest! It was amazing, it was such a hot day, I think we all got burned (mainly John, poor soul, his face was all burnt red the next day). It was so bright and the colours of the landscape were so vivid. It was a bit busy too, to be expected, Loudoun Hill has become a fairly popular place with people. So we did get some looks from people who were curious. Especially this one woman who sat in the distance behind us who could clearly see we were filming but did not move out the shot, instead watching us with intense curiosity haha. Took us a few trips to get all the drum kit over, down a hill then across a bridge then back up another steep hill so calories were most definitely burned that day, particularly my Dad who was an amazing helping hand that day, documenting photos of it happening, going back and forth to the car to pick up things we forgot to take over the first time haha! We all got everything set up, Kieran took a few full band shots and some of each of the boys and then they headed off and myself and Kieran stayed behind to get individual shots. We were there for a good couple of hours actually, scouting out good spots, getting a couple of takes done per line and just having a lovely time. Members wise, Jamie was on lead guitar, then John on bass guitar and Anton on drums. Very talented people!
5. Could there be a video for 'Islands' too? Is that possible with current lockdown restrictions?
I do have an animated lyric video which I had commissioned someone on Fiverr to make using the artwork my amazingly talented cousin had done for Islands. That will be released the same day as Islands is released. I'd like to get a full animated video done for this track at some point as I feel with the type of song and artwork, it would just work really well.
6. Your single 'Flower Child' was released in support of SAMH and WWF UK in September. Tell me a bit about why you chose to support these charities for this release?
Yes, it was indeed. So the song itself is about the environment and how precious but vulnerable it is and how we must protect it before it's too late. During the first lockdown last year, I remember seeing an article about dolphins returning to the canals in Venice as cars weren't on the roads as much and people were indoors and that really opened my eyes to see that our behaviours towards the planet as humans, have really deeply impacted species, habitats, wildlife. The fact they felt safe enough to return had really shown me that we abuse our planet. We destroy forests, we kill and endanger animals, species and other lifeforms are in constant threat due to us, climate change is happening and has been accelerated by us, pollution is deeply harming our environment. I have always been very passionate about the outdoors and our planet, I do try to reflect this in this song, but I honestly was taken aback about this particular instance - imagine being driven out of where your natural habitat was for however long and then finally feeling safe enough to return, now the threat has all but gone? Imagine constantly living in fear of harm or of your species from being wiped out. It's so vulnerable, and so I tried to reflect this in Flower Child. To show people the beauty of the outdoors, that we take it for granted. Almost like the environment is like a small child, we must protect children as they are vulnerable, so let's treat our environment with more respect and protect it, like we would protect a child. I chose SAMH and WWF for a few reasons. Firstly, I've fundraised for SAMH before and being a mental health sufferer and a total advocate for how much the outdoors has a positive impact on mental health, like therapy, I think it ties in nicely with the environmental factor. I was looking for an environmental charity and thought WWF UK would be great as they're a charity for both animals and the environment.
7. Amongst the musicians who played on 'Flower Child' is Michael Hamilton, whose music we've written about before. What's it like to work with Michael?
Yes, Michael is a fantastic musician and all round awesome dude! Never worked with him in person sadly, only virtually, but hopefully some day. He's very talented, brought some really cool ideas to the table and he's so, so easy to work with. He takes suggestions and turns them into something awesome and unique, he's really got his own unique sound which I really like! We've decided as a group to try and collaborate on a song annually. We've made a start on another song I wrote a couple of years back but the great thing is, there's no deadlines or timelines to do it by, so we can be totally flexible and creative in that way.
8. Artax's 'Rise' EP came out in April last year, is there more in the works for Artax?
Yes, so we've been working on our next album which is super exciting, super excited to get this one out there into the world! Expect some heavy stuff with a wee guest appearance on one track, some synthy and total 80s pop/rock and some new stuff too. We've also been chatting about getting a video done so we've got some cool plans!
9. You have a Go Fund Me set up in support of your artistic development, would you tell us more about that?
Yeah of course. So a while back, I applied for this artist development course called The Artist Roadmap, which is a course designed to help independent artists build their career as an independent artist, mould their image and sound and give them the tools to develop their brand as an artist essentially on social media etc. I initially went for a zoom interview with them, they seemed really keen to help me and felt I'd be a good fit, but finances held me back. They managed to bring the cost down by giving me a scholarship. So, then my Dad had put down the deposit for it and I decided I'd try to raise the rest. I had raised about a quarter of it maybe, and honestly, I suck at fundraising so I didn't push it well. But I was lucky enough to have received the Hardship Fund from Creative Scotland again and used part of that towards paying the rest of it off. So now I've got the course sent out and I'm ready to begin with it.
10. 'Islands' is from your upcoming EP, what can you tell us about the rest of the EP?
Sure thing, so Blue Roses is the title track, Islands is next. I had chopped and changed what songs I wanted on the EP. Initially, it was going to be Blue Roses, Islands, a song called Machine and ending on a more upbeat song called Phoenix. But I kind of felt that maybe they were better suited for another EP or another future release. So I ended up going with Green Deserts, which is a song I wrote during a 2 week intensive songwriting workshop I did. It's going to be the track after Islands and is currently being worked on just now. The last track will be a short piano and vocal choral style track, no lyrics, just vocalisations with lots of harmonies etc. I have a cool idea in mind for that one too. The idea is to end the EP on a more positive and uplifting note with a track that takes you from the latter end of the journey of this EP and bridging it into the next one, which will hopefully be more upbeat and uplifting. The idea of the EP is to take you on a journey with each song being a milestone in that journey and ending it almost on a cliffhanger of the good things that are to come next. Hoping to release it by Summer, probably mid to possibly end of Summer which should hopefully give enough time to get the other 2 tracks done and promoted etc.
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Listen and download the music of Ceiti on her Bandcamp page here.
Check out Fiona Liddell’s ‘Cover To Cover’ album showcasing Scottish women in music on Bandcamp.
Follow Ceiti on Instagram and Facebook @ceitiglaofficial and on Twitter @ceiti3.
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